Germany to relax migrant deportation rules

Germany is amending laws to ease the deportation of foreigners with criminal offences amid an on-going backlash over mass sexual assaults on women during New Year's Eve festivities.

The move is part of a broader effort to calm tensions following widespread allegations that mainly young men from Middle East and North African nations had organised the New Year's Eve crime spree in Cologne and elsewhere.

Germany is now sending an ever increasing number of migrants back to Austria with most coming from places like Afghanistan, Algeria, and Morocco.

In December, it dispatched around 60 per day, which has since increased to 200.

Meanwhile, the New Year's Eve assaults have led to mounting criticism against Germany's open-door policy for refugees and asylum seekers and has fed into brewing far-right hostility against foreigners.

Around 20 Pakistani nationals were attacked by marauding vigilante groups earlier this week near the Cologne railway station.

And last week, the anti-immigration Pegida movement marched through the centre of Cologne with some carrying banners reading "rapefugees not welcome".

Germany welcomed over a million asylum seekers last year with many fleeing war and persecution in Syria. Around a half million have applied so far for asylum.

Merkel, for her part, has warned that the chaotic arrival of migrants has made the EU more vulnerable.

The mandate for Operation Sophia, the EU's naval mission in the Mediterranean sea, ends in December. Demands to change it, including new rules on disembarkation, are set to be agreed within the next few weeks.

The European Commission says it is ready to boost spending in Morocco when it comes to stop migrant hopefuls from reaching Spain by boat. The money follows demands for help from Madrid as irregular arrival numbers spike in Spain.